LEIGH Griffiths had a late night on Friday on his return to Dundee but
at least the Celtic forward was in good company.
Ronny Deila revealed that he and his players were sent out onto the
street at 2.30am after a fire alarm went off in their city centre hotel
but Celtic shrugged off the lack of sleep to reach the quarter final of
the Scottish Cup by defeating Dundee in the early kick-off.
Griffiths, on his return to Dens Park, scored with an emphatic header
after six minutes, just as he did last week against Rangers. Then
Stefan Johansen's 47th minute finish sealed the fifth round tie for the
visitors.
"The alarm call was a nightmare," said Griffiths. "It's just one of
those things that happen in hotels but the boys responded well by
winning 2-0. "I think there was a wedding downstairs because when we
came out there were people with kilts and suits on.
"There were a few folk who'd had a bit much to drink, they were trying
to take 'selfies' and stuff. I was just keeping out the road up the
back because I was too tired to talk to anyone and couldn't wait to get
back to my bed. "
Deila was philosophical about the hotel incident. "I don't know if the
fire alarm was deliberate but we were laughing," said the Celtic
manager. "We were on the street for 15 minutes and it didn't help. But
it was OK, it didn't put the players off too much. You have to be
prepared for anything.
"Dundee were on a good run without loss so they had a lot of confidence
but I think we out-ran then and outplayed them. We're playing at a high
tempo and getting victories. You saw it in the match as well. It's 11
players really committed to the job they're doing. They're having fun
on the pitch and they love chasing together."
Paul Hartley won the Scottish Cup twice as a player - with Hearts and
Celtic - but was deeply disappointed that Dundee could not come close
to repeating their elimination of Aberdeen here in the last round.
"I am not going to play things up, we just didn't do well enough," said
the Dundee manager. "We had a young keeper, Scott Bain, who kept the
score down. I told the players at half-time to get through the first 20
minutes of the second half without conceding but we did not do that. If
you are going to go out of the Scottish Cup, you should go out with a
fight and we did not."
Hartley's side gave Celtic a torrid time on their last visit to Dens
Park, last August, when James McPake put the hosts in front with a
thunderous header before Griffiths equalised for a 1-1 draw.
However, they were chasing this contest after just six minutes when
Griffiths tormented his old team once more A confident passing move saw
the ball arrive at Mikael Lustig on the touchline and the right back
whipped in a fine cross for Griffiths to get in front of McPake and
plant an angled glancing header into the far corner of the net beyond
Bain's dive.
Celtic could have been further ahead just four minutes later when a
sublime pass from Kris Commons released Johansen, who was only denied
by McPake's vigilant tackle.
Dundee were unable to contain Celtic's movement and were spectators as
the Deila's side constructed real pressure, which saw Bain save Scott
Brown's shot and then the Dundee goalkeeper rescued his side in the
23rd minute when Celtic's counter-attack cut the hosts open, with
Johansen setting up James Forrest for the winger to advance upon Bain
who parried Forrest's right foot shot and watched with gratitude as
McPake beat Griffiths to the rebound.
Dundee barely laid a glove on their opponents but eventually created a
threat from a corner cleared by Virgil van Dijk into the path of
Kostadin Gadzhalov, whose right foot volley flew just wide of the post.
However, Bain's campaign of resistance continued soon after when
another fine cross from Johansen was helped on by Commons to Griffiths
and the striker's scooped effort was pawed clear by Bain.
Another sumptuous move in the 33rd minute saw Johansen leave Stephen
McGinn in his wake before a deft ball across the edge of the box was
cleverly dummied by Griffiths for Commons to finish it off, but he
dragged a shot wide.
Hartley had to alter his game plan when Stewart succumbed to a back
injury. The loss of Dundee's top scorer for nominal right-back Paul
McGinn, hardly seemed like a fair exchange.
Bain still had time to contribute another fine save before the
interval, to deny Johansen after he had pounced on a mistake from
McPake . That was almost eclipsed by Craig Gordon at the other end,
when Paul McGowan's shot took a wicked deflection, but the half
finished with Griffiths volleying just over the bar.
However, just two minutes into the second half, Johansen doubled
Celtic's lead. A fine Nir Bitton ball was met by the elusive Griffiths,
whose firm header was kept out by the agile Bain, but the rebound was
pounced upon by Johansen to net his sixth goal of the season.
After that, Celtic were in cruise control, although Deila's side - led
by Scott Brown - continued to work so hard to deny Dundee any hint of
space. They should have scored more but Bain touched an audacious
Johansen effort with the outside of his boot, onto the bar.
And all of this, achieved without new signings Stuart Armstrong and
Gary Mackay-Steven. The pair are cup tied, which was perhaps merciful
for the Dens Park support who watched both scored here with Dundee
United.
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